If Mꦜaverick Vinales, currently suspended by Yamaha for deliberately over-revving his engine, doesn't return for Silverstone, a rumoured reshuffle could see Cal Crutchlow drafted into the Official team and countryman Jake Dixon making a surprise MotoGP debut at Petronas.

As Yamaha's official test rider, Crutchlow is the꧃ obvious choice to step in alongside world championship leader Fabio Quartararo should Yamaha make Vinales' suspension permanent.

But Crutchlow, who retired from full-time racing ꦺat the end of last year, is already replacing the injured Francꦡo Morbidelli at SRT.

With th🍰e Italian not due back until Misano, a Crutchlow sw🦄itch would leave Petronas needing a new substitute to join Valentino Rossi at Silverstone and Aragon.

And that new rider might just be SRT's own Jake Dixon, cu🌠rrently competing for the Malaysian outfit in the Moto2 class.

Crutchlow refused to comment on 'whether Dixon is or isn't riding the bike' at Silverstone – and it's worth noting that if Yamaha splits from Vinales now, they could well be surrendering anyꦬ hope of keeping their lead in the teams' world championship - but added:

"Is he [Dixon] ready to ride the bike? I don’t know. It's difficꦛult to say. I wasn’t ready to ride [in Austria] but I did and I think if he does rides, it'll be good for him, he'll go well.

"The bike around Silverstone is quite easy, I would say, even when I rode the bike back 🔯in 2011-2012-2013 - well I didn't ride '11, I was in hospital - '12 and '13 the bike was good around Silverstone.

"It's a lot more flowing than this track. A completely diffﷺerent situation to coming here and trying to ride on a track that you're fighting a losing battle with really.

"If he come🧸s and rides, then I'm sure he'll enjoy it."

Crutchlow was speaking after the conclusion of the second Red Bull Ring race, where he repeated his 17th place from the previous week on the𓆏 2019 A-Spec M1.

"Track conditions were not fantastic, as you can s🎐ee from the lap ti🥃mes last week to this week, just because it was hotter," Crutchlow said. "But overall I think we made a step in the right direction.

"I made a mistake andℱ ran wide in one corner which cost me a bit of th♋e tow to Danilo, and then I had a problem with the electronics on the bike.

"Out of the last corner the bike kept really not accelerating, like the power was dying when I was opening the throttle. It was because I changed the map, it seems something was wrong with the map, so I changedꦰ the map again and the same thing was happening.

"So I had to go back to the first map and♔ it took me 3-4 laps to understaꦯnd it all.

"By this time the race was ahead of me,💮 but I was quite comfortable in my pace and to finish the race, but then it started🔥 to rain.

"The pro🃏blem was that I was last by a good way be🌠cause I kept slowing down with the electronics, and I couldn't see anybody. So I didn't know if everybody had pitted or not. So finally I looked on the big screen and saw a lot of people in the pits so I pitted, went back out and the track was like ice!

"The ground was so hot it was making like ౠa shine on the surface. But I didn’t have a bad pace in those two laps.

"A really tricky race, glad to see the finish, I think we would have made a good♚ improvement as regards the pace and diꦉstance to the winner if it was a full dry race without problems.

"But overall we had two good weekends of fun, nice to be bac✨k on the bike and the team worked well."

Although ༺he wasn't able to score any points, the triple MotoGP race winner was content with his speed.

"The problem is they're going too fast and need to slow down! I had a really bad qualifying, but I qualified half-a-tenth slower t🙈han last year as a full-time rider with six years on the Ho♊nda," Crutchlow said.

"I don’t think it's as bad as it looks on paper. At least we got some good information, at one point in warm-up I was losing six tenths on♚ average just in the first sector. That is down to the speed of the bike.

"It was never a good track for Franco or the [A-Spec] Yamaha that I was riding, when Fabio and the other guys were riding it they struggled a lot at this circuit. So I 🐻did what I could do and that's the reality.

"It was never going to be easy jumping in after five months off the bike, or coming to this circuit and on me to understand many things♉. But I think we did a good job of that. We gave Yamaha some good information. I sat down with Sumi [Yamaha MotoGP project leader] this morning for nearly 40-minutes discussing the '19 bike, '21 bike, and next ye✤ar's bike."

While Crutchlow and Morbไidelli's crew chief Ramon Forcada tried a va💯riety of set-ups, the Englishman is yet to make the A-Spec feel as comfortable as the 2021 factory-spec bike he tested earlier this year.

"We tried a lot of different set-ups, inc⛎luding their base, but the one I feel better with is the 2021 bike. Because that'🎃s what I've been testing," Crutchlow said.

Whichever team – Petronas or Monster - he is riding for in front of his home fans next time at Silverstone, Crutchlow expects, "to ꧟do my job and my job is to test. Even though I'm racing, it's a test. We can turn the bike🌟 upside down if they want.That's the good thing.

"The problem I had with the electඣronics today, it was good that it hap🌜pened to me and not the other [Yamaha] riders. This is also what we are here for, to do these things.

"Being back on the bike after so long off, and being near enough as fast as last year, I was quite pleased꧋ with that. !t's just that everybody else was going faster and that's the reality.

"So we'll go to Silver🌳stone with better hopes of improving my feeling and whatever else we can improve. But overall, I'm looking forward to Silverstone."

♔Team-mate Valentino Rossi finished i🐼n a season-best eighth place after deciding to remain on slicks in the rain.